>>143324It's boring. Bad things become grinding for levels, it takes all the personal joy out of being bad when this is all the game is. Not even in a goofy Godizllia: king of all monsters way but " oh I infected new york city, that sure was several hours of gameplay".

>>143352That's why there is a purpose to his actions, to structure the story, it's still trying to unravel a mystery except instead of "what caused all this" it's "what are they doing with all this"

Mercer doesn't seem to be trying to infect the world, if he was he could have done it already, meanwhile the other infected seem to have formed a hive structure, yet still aren't expanding and most of Black Watch doesn't know what Black Watch is up to.

>>143375Classes are more of "a general guide line and some bonus equipment"

You are never locked out of anything, simply challenged to achieve it.

You get magic when you find someone who knows magic and is willing to teach it to you, you'll also have have the eqipment for each spell class, you'll need the Pyromancy flame in order to cast fire spells (in my opinion the best spells in the game) A talisman for Miracles which are essentially healing magic and a catalyst for whatever the fuck they call black magic.

As I recall, you can get magic soon after defeating the Bell Gargoyles by freeing a magician who is right along the route.

>Oh hey that glowing thing looks a bit different from the other glowing things I've seen so far
>Summon Phantom FlameSaber?
>Sure why not
>Crazy powerful ghost appears which proceeds to run along ahead of me the rest of the level, slaughtering everything while I follow behind it looting corpses and tanking the occasional bit of dragonfire
>Also accompanies me to fight gigantic fucking knight, who it distracts completely while I murder crossbowmen and take potshots from the walls

>>143392What, Judith? I still prefer Yuri/Estelle (I'm just too easily lead by the Obvious Ships, I think), but I definitely see the appeal of Yuri/Judith.

But Yuri's got good chemistry with everyone, so it's not really any wonder. He's definitely the best Tales protagonist ever, and ranks really high in the list of Best Video Game Protagonists In General.

Resonance of Fate is like the prototype of demon souls. I've never seen a jrpg as unforgiving as this game nor one that makes weapon statics so pointless with a million customization options for so few actual guns to equip. Not to mention filled with occasional bullshit missions I thought died out in the early 90s, but damned if I’m not compelled to beat this game like a red headed step child just to show it who is boss.

>>143687Bah, fuck your claws, they will always be useless as long as the blade power exists, Muscle Mass had BLOODSPLOSIONS, it was EASILY the best and most versatile power in the game.

Also Heller will be less of a human slaughterer than Mercer, parts of his missions apparently involve impersonating military officers and putting out evacuation orders in areas he's going to be fighting in, you can still consume lots of people, but the concern for them is in the story at least.

Also let's fly back 30 feet every time something brushes against us. I don't remember THAT in Aria of Sorrow. Although I certainly remember it in the original Castlevania, or as I like to call it HAHAHA MEDUSA KNOCK YOU DOWN HOLE: The Game.

So I got Red Faction Armageddon for dirt cheap on PC and I'm starting to see why SR3 was cut into little DLC pieces. The game style is eerily similar, but unlike the later game RFA is so god-awful my high spec computer refuses to run it. In the span of 2 hours it’s crashed 10 times.

This is like Alpha Protocol all over again in terms of developer abandonment of an unpolished game as soon as it doesn’t sell.

>Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition delivers the critically acclaimed game, all previously released downloadable content (DLC), plus digital downloads of the 2011 release of Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired by the Warriors album with a bonus track, and the 1995 Mortal Kombat film on the PlayStation®Store or Xbox Live Zune. The DLC includes fan-favorite warriors Skarlet, Kenshi and Rain, as well as the infamous dream stalker Freddy Krueger. The game also offers 15 Klassic Skins and three Klassic Fatalities (Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Reptile). Mortal Kombat: Songs Inspired by the Warriors is a collection of electronic music inspired by the game and is executive produced by JFK (of the DJ/ production duo MSTRKRFT and Death From Above 1979).

While I wouldn't call myself an aficionado of Mortal Kombat, I did want to try the latest reboot of the series after reading many good things about it. And judging by the extras being stuffed in the game's upcoming re-release, the "Komplete Edition" is the way to go, even though I already own the 1995 film on VHS.

I mean, yeah, if the gameplay is shit I'm going to stop playing the game pretty quickly. But while bad gameplay can be a reason not to play a game, I've been coming to the realization that for me, good gameplay is not enough to get me to play a game.

I play games like I'm reading a book. I don't read books for the visceral thrill of noticing commas or marveling at quotation marks or because I really like the way somebody used a semicolon. I read books because I like the story, the narrative, the presentation.

Same thing with games. If the story is dumb, if the game is ugly, or if the writing is bad, I just don't care about the game, even if it has great gameplay.

When I get a new game, I like to play it because everything is novel, and I'm a novelty junkie. I'm on the internet, after all. But as soon as the novelty of the gameplay wears off - in about two hours, usually - I lose interest entirely unless there's something else to pull me in. My Steam library is chock full of games with only an hour of playtime logged for this reason.

I think a part of it is a sense of needing to improve myself. Sometimes I end a play session and think back and wonder, "What have I gained from spending two or three hours on this?" And I realize this is a complete value judgement. I realize it's a personal values thing that doesn't make all that much rational sense. But, I can't seem to get past this feeling that videogames - specifically the whole deal of increasing your skill at playing them, building up a character, getting better at a game - are a gigantic waste of my time. And this is where the (admittedly nonsensical and a complete double standard) value judgement comes in, because while I look disdainfully at that, I'm willing to spend time reading books, watching movies, and listening to music.

I guess the best way to put it is that I love a good narrative. I want a story. I believe my life can be improved and I can grow as a person through broadening my horizons of art and narrative. But at some deep level, I view gameplay as a dead-end for my personality and growth as a person. When I stop playing games, I think back and feel like I just switched my personality off for a long time, and I always have an uneasy gut feeling that doing that too long will lead to stagnation.

And looking back, I think that ended up being way more negative and confrontational than I meant it to be. But it's something I've been struggling with for a while and I just needed to get it out.

>>143876I think I kind of agree. Well, except for the semicolon bit because, really, some authors just know exactly where to place a semicolon to really get your bread broadly buttered, if you know what I mean.

I do remember a time when being good at playing the video games that I had was important to me. Interestingly, this view point corresponds to when I played a lot of games with my brother and friends. Once my brother stopped playing games with me, and my friends stopped all together, I noticed that I just had no drive to hit top scores or to perfect sequences or tactics or whatever. I don't feel any competitive need to prove myself to complete strangers on the internet, in general, especially when there's such a low chance of really getting noticed for it.

I guess that's when it started feeling less like "improvement" (although, hey, can always take advantage of better hand-eye coordination, especially as the years march on, haha) and more like "waste of time". And once I started playing video games exclusively for myself, I realized that I really wasn't into them for their gameplay from the beginning, anyway.

I never really liked saving cardboard princesses, or going from Point A to Point B just for the sake of moving really fast, or stacking blocks endlessly. They all seemed pretty small and boring. Heck! I remember my brother and I trying to make up stories for why everyone was getting together in Melee! (Something something, Link and Captain Falcon were best friends? and Ness was the true villain all along and Yoshi kept trying to move into Hyrule castle even though he obviously lived at Yoshi's Island but that had been recently flooded by Kirbys...?)

But now that there's a large onslaught of games that seemingly try to tackle bigger issues, like wars spanning across worlds, and... well, okay, I guess at a base level that explains a lot of the current games I like, haha; but still, it's where they start adding details that flesh things out, like: why you're there, why these characters are important, why the bad stuff happened, why this princess deserves to be saved, etc, etc. It just feels an awful lot like games have recently matured, and I suppose I've just matured along with them.

Although getting back to what you were initially talking about, I still feel as though the main reason I've lost interest in the gaming aspect of video games and appreciate the stories and characters more is because of the lack of friends to really compare and compete with. Especially since (while he doesn't play with me, sadness) my brother managed to keep some of his gaming friends and is still very much into the sake of being good at video games just so that he CAN be good at them.

In Darksiders 2 according to the Devs they are really trying to push the RPG aspect of the game, loot drops, experience and all that sorta stuff, they've also said they've read everything the internet had to say about Darksiders and they've used all of the constructive advice they gathered in the game.

>>144217>>144218In that same interview they talked about Death having customizable armor and weapons as well as enhancements in an improved system, additionally that you get Despair from the get go and a huge world with NPCs in which you can you him, since in the first game you nearly didn't get Ruin til the end and there was almost no where to ride him.

In regards to the NPCs they said it was one of the first games largest failures, mentioning "War met, like, 5 NPCs and killed 3 of 'em!"

So there will apparently be Towns and Cities with NPCs that "Aren't half-assed."

I forgot to mention, they are no longer stuck within the frame work of Earth as the setting and they've abandoned attempts at photo-realism for a more air brush painted cartoon style to work with Joe's art.

This means way crazier more epic surroundings and characters.

The basic premise of the game is that in the 100 year since War was framed, Death was trying to prove him innocent as well as revive all of humanity to rebalanced the scales.

In the Darksiders universe souls don't go to heaven or hell or even to the Charred Council, they go to the abyss.

So the story itself is being kinda cheeky, Death himself is said to be a more emotional guy than War.

Death is on a mission to revive the entire human race, the humor of the situation is not lost on him.

>>144226Which is good since War was on Earth, Death is in the Abyss which is where everyone went, they haven't stated what happens to them there though or what is entailed in the revival process or even if Death succeeds, since the story is parallel to the first game in the time line.

>>144232>It's also supposed to be 6 times longer.
That sounds like massive exaggeration. That's over 100 hours. Even Baldur's Gate II wasn't that long. Unless they're including all kinds of sidequests and stuff in that statement.

Every year or so I suddenly think of Card Sagas Wars.
Sometimes there will even have been a new preview video since then.
Card Sagas Wars - Master Chief VS SamusNeat.
It's still one of my favourite things that will probably never be finished.

>>144295There are no Demons or Angels in the Abyss, only Old ones like Ulthane or dead human souls.

In the Darksiders Universe Heaven and Hell are two distinct realm that are totally separate from the afterlife, if you do encounter them they are most likely stealing human souls for currency or fuel so you'll be killing them rather than talking.

The cities you do encounter will be populated mainly by spectral humans as the Abyss was unprepared for an early apocalypse and so it is flooded with too many souls.

>First day of new College semester
>Teacher asks each of us what our focus is and what our hobbies are
>He asks this one fat goth girl
>"OH I PLAY VIDEO GAMES"
>"Hmm, interesting. Do you have a favorite?"
>"THE LEGEND OF ZELDA OCARINA OF TIME"
>"Can't say I've heard of that."
>"IT WAS THE FIRST ZELDA GAME TO BE RELEASED FOR THE NINTENDO 64"
>"Hmm, interesting, now th-"
>"I ALSO PLAY THE PIANO"
>"Oh, what kind of music do you play?"
>"VIDEO GAME MUSIC"

>>144317Maybe, but why can't people who play games present their hobbies in a way that makes them sound like they actually have lives? It's been 30 fucking years since games were first introduced and we STILL haven't made them part of the art spectrum instead of something only autistic mama's boy NEEEEEERDS do.

Doesn't help that I said I play games 4-5 hours a day, which to me isn't much but apparently it is to everyone else.

>>144323It's a self-reinforcing cycle. You have to put your foot down while still being polite. TV, film, music, comics, even classical literature that supposedly smart people talk about all day, they all had this kind of stigma, still do in some cases.

>As someone who was quite fond of what he saw of the re-imagined XCOM at E3 this past year, but who's also excited about the Firaxis strategy reboot of the franchise, I am somewhat conflicted by this news.

>We haven't heard much about the XCOM FPS as of late, but have seen and heard plenty about XCOM: Enemy Unknown. In fact, many would say this news does not come as a big surprise.

>>144342Having something to do with any of Xcom's gameplay or setting.

What does "Mass Effect Clone in the 50s with different aliens, different guns, different everything"have to do with Xcom? Answer: absolutely nothing. So why did they try to sell it as Xcom? Answer: because it's a shitty game they slapped a known name onto to boost sales. The thing is though that nobody fell for this, so they put a real Xcom game into development with a studio that has proven their skill with strategy games and has a demonstrated love of the original title. Now we're looking at SHITTY FAKE Xcom having been delayed and the real new Xcom looks absolutely fantastic from what we've seen. All that's left is for 2k to quietly sweep the fake under the rug and we can all pretend that ugly business never happened.

Aw yeah, finally got to play Kirby's Return to Dreamland with a friend and it was the best thing ever.
Some games are worth not playing for months waiting for a chance to get together with a friend to play.
We pretty much beat the whole thing in one sitting.

>>144474I don't know, I did a mostly kill-free run first playthrough and definitely could have gotten Pacifist if I was really trying. The only ones I remembered killing were some of the ones attacking Malik's helicopter, and spamming the stun gun and takedowns seemed to actually work better than shooting them.

>>144474>>144489Yeah not killing anyone forces you to switch up tactics a bit. I had to let Malik die because I really didn't care for the stun gun and didn't have any gas grenades.

The thing is is that it's not all that difficult. My pacifist playthrough was completed on deus ex difficulty, and if anything being a pacifist made the game easier there. It really is a stealth game, and it's fairly easy slip through just about every situation without being detected at all (cloaking helps).

There's nothing outright revolutionary about the gameplay. I can point to like a half a dozen games that do minute things that deus ex does but better; Resident Evil 4 had better inventory, Gears of War had better cover, Mass Effect has more dialogue options and Metal Gear Solid has guards that beat the pants off how outright stupid these guys are sometimes. Etc, etc.

The thing is that the whole experience is so solidly conceived. Yes, pieces were better in other games. But everything there is well done, if not amazing. There's less dialogue options, but I feel like what's there is more fulfilling than say "I'm Commander Shepard and I'm a penis because I feel like being one". It's some of the best stealth I've seen in a while, possibly better than MGS4. And, incredibly, because of that balance towards stealth, you treat the city hubs with a little more respect than you do in other games (mostly because doing anything not in the shadows gets you gunned down in about 3 seconds). I was also amazed that, even my second time in, I was still finding little things that had completely missed my attention the first time, from ammo and weapons to entire side missions.

To top it all off, this is the first video game in forever where I felt like its' subject matter is somewhat important. It feels very much like reading 1984 in the 1960s, in that respect. It's a vision of the future that, at times, seems all too real, like by the time we do get to 2027, it might just happen.

>>144492Its DX done right again with political intrigue that while Sci-fi you can actually see on the horizon. Ah well its off to do a psycho murder run because its something I almost never do because I like being sneaky.

>birthday coming up
>really not sure what I want
>remember I've been meaning to get Alice: Madness Returns
"Well, I was thinking of just buying it on Steam, but I wouldn't mind having a physical copy."
>tell the folks said game would make a dandy gift
>later remember in a sudden horrible flash that it was published by EA
>ten seconds on Google confirms the physical copy requires Origin

>Liked Katawa Shoujo
>Decide to try another VN from that list of recommended VNs
>Saya no Uta
>First Scene starts
>Huh, I wonder what this'll be abOH FUCK WHAT THE HELL WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKING HELL OH MY FUCKING GOD

Its sad that even if I'm interested in Kingdoms of Amalur, all I need to see is the EA stamp and the sad fact that this gameplay nearly screams DA2 clone to instantly drain any curiosity I have for this thing.

>2006
>Playing Final Fantasy III DS
>Bosses can attack twice in one turn
"Fuck this is hard."
>2012
>Playing FF 4 Heroes of Light
>Bosses level with you and attack 4 or more times per turn
>"WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!"
At least Chaos is the classiest final boss in any FF to date. Dat top hat and cane.
>>144568He looks like he stepped right out of Kazuma Kaneko's early SMT work, creepy as fuck.

>>144630>>144623Yeah, the game is amazing, the faction missions are a lot of fun and lurking plus destroying bases it's a blast (though it can be tedious to get the 100 on locations at times).
Which reminds me I need to keep following it since I have to go for the "Three Kings".
Fun fact: for what I was told, Panau is bigger than Skyrim.

Pros:
-Leon playable and his story is more personal and his game play is more like RE4
-Ada has her own unlockable storyline
-Seems to be some decent gameplay innovations and hopefully Capcom has been looking at Dead space for ways to improve Resident Evil.
-Game looks pretty rad and comes out this year

Cons
-Chris is lame
-Hunk is the mercenary dude in the trailer and will be paling around with Ashley form RE4
-They are showing HUNKS face
-Seriously capcom don't ruin HUNK you dumb fucks.

>>144675Leon manages to be so absurd and cheesy he becomes cool, it also helps that he's in the best resident Evil games and Chris was in 5 last and I didn't like 5 at all.

Honestly for as hard as I am on RE and the survival horror genre in general after being a big complaining baby on twitter about this Im really starting to dig it. Hope it turns out good, wonder if there will be a weird Wii U version.

>>144685>5 is just a far superior version of it, game play wise at least.
5 does little more than copy and paste bits of 4's gameplay and cobble it together with RE's shitty overarching story to create a much shorter game.

As for Chris being recognizable, no super strength does not make him recognizable, it's just another stupid RE thing. I'm talking about his character design. He looks like every generic gun toting merc ever, it's the most boring thing. Leon's not much better but again, you look at him and he's immediately recognizable as Leon while Chris looks like four thousand other character.

RE's a traditionally shitty series but it's started to turn out decent game so who knows, maybe 6 will be good.

>>144685I felt 5 was a step down from 4 to be honest, never played the co-op though so maybe im not giving it a fair shake?

Honestly my cons are just jokey hyperbole, like I said I can be hard on RE so its always the little things that bug me.
Id like to see the return of some of the other RE characters to take the starring role in 6 or maybe a new character. Seeing Chris again (who Im pretty lukewarm on as a character) come back after just starring in 5 and is the Co-star of Revelations doesn't really get me excited.

Id even trade Leon as a playable character if it meant we could get someone different, even though I find Leon hilarious and love Re2&4

He's over 6 feet tall and almost 220, Barry Burton isn't even that big, also Resident Evil characters are supposed to look like people so slapping a pink mohawk on one of them for distinction is a no go.

>>144690I enjoyed it immensely both ways, one of the things that was so grating to me in RE4 was dealing with companion AI, at least here they gave you the choice to allow a functioning human being to help you.

In RE4 you had The Big Cheese, Ramon Salazar, Saddler and Jack Krasurge.

In RE5 you had that one guy whose a fish monster, that one girl who became that bigger version of the blob monsters that are super weak with glowing weak spots, mind controlled Jill and Wesker.

Also I still feel Wesker isn't dead despite twin Rocket Launchers into a volcano, I wanna say it's because Wesker is bad ass, but I know it's probably lack of satisfaction in his death.

Also, between 5 and the movies, I feel like Jill has become the worst part of the Resident Evil universe, the keep sticking her in stuff and trying to make her sexier, but the whole thing about originally was her boyishness and that awesome beret, if she's in any more games she needs to go back to that, her BSAA outfit was a step in the right direction.

I'm pretty hype about it. I'm liking the more movie-oriented action like sliding around and then firing behind you. Hopefully it's not a "press X to win" quick time, though.

Ashley with Hunk, though? Ehhhhhh. Hopefully she's not as annoying, though apparently having the same voice actor. Also I hope she can hold her own now, and is still equipped with "ballistics".

>>144695Agreed. Her continual redesign just made her more and more generic, as well as taking away any easy identification. RE5 Jill is just another victim of "Paris-fication" that happened to Samus Aran.

Also, Leon's new manly chin and facial shadow doesn't jive with his haircut.

>>144664So is this thing going to be the first of those Capcom games that has only one save file?
>>144696Is Leon ever going to leave the 90s? His hair style was okay in 4 but this is like some beauty school nightmare. He almost has a mullet at this point.

Hunk without his gasmask? Man fuck that, he's not the same without his real face. (though on that note its not like we haven't seen him unmasked before, its just I don't have any desire to play a story with him running about barefaced, hell I don't even want an actual storyline with him, leave him as that coldblooded badass who runs around in the background living up up to his title as Mr Death)
And I suppose no Jill? I know she's in that 3DS game but the trailers ofof it weren't promising for her character portrayal-wise

>>144695>Mentioning the movies
Man don't even TALK about those overpriced fanfics starring the directors wife as his OC, my sheer hate will take on a tangible rotted form and eat your brains.

The only Resi game in development I've felt any interest in is Operation Racoon City, something a little different you know? Might be fun.

>>144707There's nothing really... unique, about unmasked hunk.
If anything by becoming the eptimome of the gasmasked henchman and transcending thier inherent disposability he becomes something more special.
Plus his character in the trailers for Resi 6 seems kinda off, thats what really bothers me about him. Its not always a good thing when the writers take a minor character with a large fanfollowing and try to pimp him out in the A-plot.

>>144804I just wanted to show that there were some fuck up stuff.
And when it comes to gore nothing beats pratical effects so FMV has a leg up.
Making of Harvester.Also I heard that(manhunt 1) makes a great horror game when you use a mic.
Why? The bad guys can hear you BREATHE!

>>144909MY GOD... IT'S FULL OF STARMEN
>>144899It actually has my favorite Riddler design ever. Perfect mix of the question mark-covered body suit and the three-piece. It helps that he looks like David Tennant.

>>144940I'd say yes because that thing is an intrusive beast. But since you have a physical copy can you install the game separately from Origin stuff and then get a scene crack from the usual sources. Wondering because its something I want to do with ME3 if they don't put it on Steam.

>Have been using homebrew to play new games as a way to avoid having to instal their updates
>Wii has been acting up
>Finally decide that even if it gets rid of homebrew, it might fix the wii and I can easily reinstall it, and it'll make playing these games so much easier
>The update changes nothing
>Well that was weird.
>Bring game to a friend's house
>Install the update on her Wii, since she doesn't have homebrew anyways.
>Now her barren wii menu is full of "You could have this channel if you went to the wii shop channel and got it for free!" Channels.
Ohhh, that's what is was for.

This time we played Kirby 3 player.
Still hella awesome.
For some reason being multiple Kirbies never really feels as much fun as being the other characters.
I guess it's easier to mix them up that way.

God, I forgot how much I hated Star Ocean until I revisited Till the End of Time and Last Hope. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a series ever bite too much off of anime tropes to ruin itself for possibly even the biggest Japanese nerds they were aiming at as much as these two games.

>Okay, I've got the crack for Alice so I can play it without Origin scuzzing up my computer. Now how do I implement this thing? Well, it should be pretty straightforward. I think these go here...
>try to start it
>ERROR
>Oh, well maybe this thing goes over here...
>ERROR
>Uh, what abou-
>ERROR

Why hasn't Steam done anything mobile? Steam would be an absolutely fantastic way to get more "serious" games on Android/iWhatever. At the least, I would think they could facilitate friends list, trading, news, and game sales ("For the next hour, buy this game for a dollar, download when you get home!")

Some games they have now would be great to port to the phones, especially with their motion control. Audiowave and AaAaAA!!! come to mind. A version of Shatter, perhaps.

>>1450133 was the beginning of the end. It was a tight JRPG combat system all SOs have hidden away in a "NOW EARTH IS EVIL BUT ALSO THERE ARE THESE 4TH DIMENSION GUYS THAT WANT TO KILL US ALL" plot that made you sympathize more with the federation than the space libertarian group Quark that was supposed to be in the right, because the plot doesn't care to actually show you why that is. Earth gets destroyed again, turns out their universe is actually a video game within a video game and, oh god, it became a ham-fisted meta deconstruction of everything. Anything in the past 3 games to a certain point is rendered pointless because 3D is just 4D's MMO that the bizzaro corporation who run their universe want to pull the plug on BUT DON’T DO IT BECAUSE WE’RE ALIVE, STOP. Just like Tri-Ace eventually did with the franchise after 4 tanks. And while the characters were nowhere near as insufferable as the cast in the Last Hope, Till the End of Time has its own little short comings such as the worst main hero name I've ever heard, Fayt Leingod, who fights a final boss called Lucifer in the Japanese version. And this is the series that kept goofy fantasy names to the aliens for good reason. It was like they choose some Japanese fan fiction off the net and said "that's our third game", it was a good game that slowly went very bad in a canned pseudo Gainax ending kind of way. An ending that killed any further chronological progression in Star Ocean, thus we get the prequel that is The Last Hope.

But The Last Hope is aptly named; it was the last hope for Tri-Ace to make people like this series and it FAILED SPECTACULARLY. Every cut scene after several decent intro movies is a cacophony of terrible translation trying to depict a terrible source material. This game is so shameful in its story that the enhanced “international edition” for the PS3 is just the inclusion of the Japanese voices and text so you at least don’t have to understand what idiocy is taking place at any given point, although it won’t really matter because if you’ve seen any anime you know exactly what they’re going for with wonderful characters like the token under aged magic kid who is secretly older then her toddler looks and the older woman with tits that have their own dedicated breast physics.

The choose your own ending aspect that made Star Ocean compelling was stripped for a by-the-numbers romance with the bitchy perfect Japanese girl whose only purpose is to say how little she thinks of the player’s avatar EDGE MAVERICK when he isn’t speaking in several bland tones about justice or otherwise being blatantly stupid well on his own. It even has the gall to not only make fun of itself and only succeed in being even more painful, but all the while showing a better protagonist that you’ll never be, because the JRPG trend at that point was for you the player to be a loser and like it! And like its predecessor 4 was a terrible swansong that fucked over the other chronological side of SO leaving two good games stranded between two sides of a derp sandwich.

It doesn’t matter which is worse as it’s like comparing AIDs to Cancer. They’re both awful and ruined whatever was left of Star Ocean in their own way.

>>145096He's got a good point. That is one of the reasons that Mega was killed off because it was turning from just a "Piracy Haven" into an actual Distribution Service for people outside the industry that and Dotcom had just given them a big FU with the MegaSong and had a good case against Universal for their illegal take down of it. Speaking of game rights and original creators don't forget to Support the Leisure Suit Larry Remakes that are being done by old Sierra alumni including Al Lowe himself. Give him the support and we'll get an actual Larry 8 instead of those games that shall not be named.

>>145100No, it was killed because they were doing mad illegal shit. If they had operated themselves like Youtube does - not touched the content, not rewarded people for pirating content, deleted the content when they got takedown requests - they would still be here today, because they would have retained their safe harbor status as a file locker.

>>145136>>145146On the one hand, I'm very keen on the FF6 remake. But 5 would benefit so much more from the remake treatment than 6 would, seriously. Take a cue from the GBA version's script, but give us snazzy graphics and some of the cool innovations to increase the gameplay depth that they brought to the FF3 and FF4 remakes...

...still, I'm buying the FF6 remake anyway.

But at any rate, it's not like Moogles weren't important to FF5's plot, too. Maybe we're looking at Krile's Mog rather than Mog the Slam-Dancin', Bigfoot-Bossin' moogle.

>Public confusion over the Nintendo 3DS has forced the platform holder to roll out bold red box stickers to differentiate the similarly-named system from the original DS, and it even enforced the TV tagline 'This is not DS. This is Nintendo 3DS.'

>It's been indicated that Nintendo is keen not to repeat the same mistakes with its next-generation home console, and we're told a change of name is a real possibility - especially after president Satoru Iwata told investors Wii U needs to learn "a bitter lesson" from 3DS and public confusion over its features.

>Nintendo showed off the Wii U for the first time at E3 2011, which resulted in its share price dropping to a five year low.

Sabrina Galloway is the CFO of Gentek. Galloway is known for her political knowledge and is said to have achieved an extremely powerful position in the corporate sector.

In addition to her good looks and shrewd tactics, Galloway is impatient, naggy, and has a tendency to rely too heavily on manipulation and sex appeal to get her way. As the CFO of Gentek, Galloway cares little about her company's human test subjects.

Apparently you can fuck with her in a number of ways that alter gameplay, broadcasting sex tapes of her and stuff like that costs her a shit load of money in damage control and puts her corporate ascent on hold which causes Black Watch and the military to be worse equipped and gentek to provide less counter items like viral detectors as well as allowing you to save more test subjects while on base raids.

Colonel Rooks is an elite Blackwatch officer responsible for the operations of Blackwatch in New York City.

Rooks is one of those loyal soldiers who believe that Blackwatch is the last line of defense against Biological warfare. Due to his his unwavering loyalty and commitment to Blackwatch's mission, Rooks was assigned to protect NYZ's three quarantine zones and to facilitate various Blackwatch and Gentek initiatives. During his time in NYZ, Rooks oversaw various projects that attempted to weaponize the viral monsters known to terrorize the human populace.

Rooks is an enthusiastic, tough and quick-minded person when compared to the former General Randall. He is occasionally thrilled about the positive developments in his operations and enraged about the negative ones.

Even with the commitment for Blackwatch, Rooks is compassionate about his family. This differentiates him from the rest of the Blackwatch operatives.

Apparently messing with him decreases base rebuilding, strike teams, military co-operation with Gentek and the like of that.

Lt. Clint Riley is Colonel Rooks' personal aide and second-in-command in the NYZ operation. He has served in Blackwatch since at least the events of the first outbreak.

Riley is said to have engaged in many operations like; providing protection to Gentek scientists, facilitating all NYZ military operations, and ultimately engaging in an operation to capture James Heller. All of this on behest of Colonel Rooks' orders.

Riley is quick to discipline any soldier that displays less-than-professional behaviors and attitudes. Conversely, his relationship with Rooks is extremely sycophantic; Riley jumps to do anything the Colonel asks, and to scramble and show shame when the Colonel brings him up short.

If you wreak his plans less patrols will appear and you'll be harder to track.

"Koenig is a tottering, whiny old fool with a dose of mad scientist thrown in for good measure."

Dr. Koenig is the lead virologist of Gentek and responsible for its major projects at New York City. Koening also display a deep interest in James Heller when he realizes that he was infected by Alex Mercer.

Help him and he'll get you new mutations and sabotage equipment of the soldiers and black watch who are after you.

>>145347So what, are games never allowed to feature stuff like that? I agree game writers are almost as bad as comicbook writers when it comes to female characters and its gonna be somewhat distasteful even with good writing but still... it's hardly not an impossible scenario.

Wii U:
>User accounts: Wii U will have individual user accounts, rather than one system-wide account.
>NFC: Near Field Communication ("touch" data transmission from accessories, credit cards, etc... sort of like QR/Streetpass combined) will be built-in.
>Online: Miyamoto: "Network has to have a totally new concept to be different."

3DS:
>NSMB 3DS announced: Planning to release a totally new side-scrolling action Super Mario in 2D as a key title for the Nintendo 3DS in the next fiscal year.
>200 3DS titles in development.
>Nintendo first-party DLC: Nintendo considering DLC for their own software, mentions "Super Mario" as an example:
>"If a Super Mario user gets tired, we can then sell digital extras which will drive extra revenue, encourage higher communication amongst users, and possible increased satisfaction and hardware install bases."
>More Swapnote-like apps? Because of the success of Swapnote, Nintendo is considering other strategies to benefit from this social behaviour.
>"Path to profits is improve 3DS and focus on software. Super Mario titles will drive a lot of profitability."
>60% of 3DS users have connected to the Internet; wants to expand digital offering, but at "infant stage" now.
>Iwata: "Nintendo's priority is to satisfy existing 3DS users, as well as to prepare titles that will expand the user base combined with network."

General:
>Third parties: Several new, previously unconsidered alliances/partnerships with third parties.
>Communities: You haven't seen the last of them!
>Retail title downloads: 3DS and Wii U both support digital download of retail titles, but... they still aren't quite sure how to implement it just yet.
>Item billing: "We should not decline third parties if they want to offer item billing" (paying to unlock content).
>DLC: Still planning to offer DLC (possibly talking about their own software), but needs more time to complete its feasibility study on the market and its needs.
>More sharing: "Digital will include user to user communications and sharing" (More social networking integration? More Swapnote-like apps? More emphasis on Streetpass/Spotpass?).
>Better-paced software + DLC: Nintendo has learnt that it shouldn't have stagnant periods between software launches: can fill the gap, and DLC can extend the life of a title.
>Asia: Planning products for Asia, local partners (WiiQue U?) yet to be announced; still issues of copyright.
>This will be Nintendo's worst financial year, but Iwata thinks the company can reach break-even on 3DS hardware in Q3 of this year.
>Miyamoto still around, Iwata angry at Wired. "Miyamoto is saying his basic work is to create a big hit."

>>145373It sounds good... but I'll need to see it to believe it.
Other than the Wiis utter lack of games (at least ones I found interesting) was their atrocious internet and networking.
For a party and friends focused console you where shit out of luck if your friends happened to want to play and weren't over at your house.

I'm watching you Wii U and I hope you fair better than your predecessor.

I figure this is a major longshot, but I'm wondering if someone might have what I'm looking for. Playing the new Alice game has gotten me rather nostalgic, and I dug up the various digital knick-knacks I'd amassed for the first game. However, I realized there was a particular piece of art that I'd lost somewhere along the line. A couple hours in image searches only managed to yield this fan art based on the image in question. It was similar to the attached picture, save that it was more polished and fully colored; might have even been concept art from the game. If anyone happens to have it, I'd be most appreciative if you could post it.

>Older sister playing Sonic Generations
>First time in years that she's played a sonic game
>Using the Xbox 360 d-pad to control sonic
This is comedy gold, but also sad. I remember when she could blast through games like this like it was nothing. This must be what Guns n' Roses fans feel like...

>NES gets blinking light
>Carefully unscrew case and metal protector
>Slide out pin connector
>Find out I have no q-tips or alcohol to clean with.
>Class soon, not enough time to head down to dollar store.

Hey come to think of it, weren't there a few games announced around last summer? Games for which I said I was gonna clear my backlog for whenever they got released, and proceeded to do nothing of that sort? I wonder what happened to th-

>Tales of the Abyss: February 14
>Hakuoki: February 15
>Grand Knights History: February 21
>Devil Survivor 2: February 28

>Tribes Ascend
>CTF
>Crossfire
>teammate gets enemy flag
>takes it to base
>doesn't cap it
>"what do i dowith teh flag"
>Run over to our flag and we score apoint
>"naw i got a bettr idea lol"
>starts trying to fight enemies that are coming to reclaim the flag.
>"dis way we wear down their reinforcement points"
>He dies in a volley of spinfusor disks because he's a moron Ranger that's using the shitty assault rifle
>they recapture their flag
>take ours.
>I'm the only one chasing them
>Kill 2 of them but can't catch up
>they cap it
>"guys ur fags u shouldve covered me"

>PSP is completely dead
>search for an online repair shop with BBB credentials
>$75 repair special!
>and for $20 you get worry-free shipp--
Y'know what, I'm just gonna get a cheap PSPGo on eBay and do the Patapon thing.